Readers of The National

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Alex Cole-Hamilton is demanding a high price for LibDem support of the Scottish budget

Letters Bid to force the SNP to ditch their key policy is hardly democratic
I SEE the current leader of the Scottish Lib-UnDems is at it again. He’ll support the SNP Scottish Government’s budget as long as not a single penny is spent on the constitution or independence. Despite the fact that the SNP clearly won the last Scottish Parliament election and was able to form a government – surely Alex Cole-Hamilton isn’t now telling all those who voted for the SNP that he does not respect their votes or wishes?

Reform UK promise they could solve every problem at a stroke

Letters We cannot deny the surge of reactionary right-wing populism in the UK
THE British state is in a bit of a state these days. It has been for longer than I care to remember. So maybe Labour’s unspoken but implied message of “we’re not the Tories” has worked for them, in the short-term: short enough to win the recent election. And there it is again, reactionary, binary politics.

LibDem MP Christine Jardine raised these concerns at Westminster

Letters National Insurance increase may lead to closure of some GP practices
IN the recent post-Budget debate, news coverage has mainly focused on the threat to small businesses from the huge increase in employer National Insurance contributions and to family farms by the punitive inheritance tax changes.

Political game-playing isn't keeping anyone warmer as temperatures plummet

Letters No prospect of any winners amid the Winter Fuel Payment blame game
IT is a cold, wet and windy November day. The central heating has been off for a couple of hours and the room is getting noticeably colder again. I have resisted all attempts by my energy supplier to let them install a smart meter in a futile attempt at an “ignorance is bliss” strategy when it comes to the fuel bill.

The lack of local rental properties for local young folk is not addressed by park plans

Letters National Park offering to Galloway locals is full of 'jam tomorrow'
THE problem with the idea of “increased tourism” being a benefit to local Galloway communities can be addressed by the equally pressing problem of properties being bought for Airbnb use, taken out of the local housing market and inflating house prices.

SSE branding is a familiar sight for those driving around the Highlands

Letters Pleas for help from distressed rural communities are being ignored
AS I travel around the Highlands trying to avoid the heartbreaking scars of industrialisation creeping across the landscape, I have become increasingly aware of the presence of the navy-and-green vehicles belonging to SSE. I am either passing them parked at the side of the road, being overtaken by them, behind them or in a queue with at least one of them.

Will Finance Secretary Shona Robison capitulate to the demands of the LibDems?

Letters SNP must not shelve their core mission in order to pass a budget

I’M hearing that independence voters are highly concerned about the SNP government’s commitment to Scotland self-determination. Yes, you too? Are we to lose funding for independence projects to negotiate the Budget through?

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Can we create a resurgent, more muscular independence movement?

Letters Inspiring essay by Neal Ascherson must serve as a rallying call

THE article by Neal Acherson in the Sunday National should be a rallying call to all independence supporters. For too long we have been subjected to a diet of gloom and doom with regard to our aspirations to becoming an independent country.

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The problem with the independence movement is that it craves 'respectability'

LETTERS The Union has eaten away at Scottish culture

THE problem with the independence movement is

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Switzerland is often considered the oldest extant democracy in Europe

LETTERS We should look to Switzerland to determine how to run referendums

SWITZERLAND is often considered the oldest extant democracy in Europe ...

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